Junior College

How North Korea hype helped South Korea's pro-peace Moon

South Korea swore in its new president last night after Moon Jae-in beat his conservative opponents, Hong Joon-Pyo and Ahn Cheol-soo by a landslide. Moon, a liberal, has called for a return to the "Sunshine Policy" of economic cooperation and humanitarian aid that was pursued under two liberal presidents but abandoned a decade ago.

In his first key appointments, President Moon named Lee Nak-yon, the current governor of South Jeolla Province, to the post of Prime Minister.

North Korea said US and South Korean agents bribed and coerced a North Korean man into joining the plot which was foiled by its state.

North Korea demanded on Thursday the handover of "terror suspects" who plotted to kill leader Kim Jong Un with a biochemical substance, repeating accusations it made last week that US and South Korean spies were behind the plan. How do you expect Moon to deal with the crisis unfolding on the Korean Peninsula?

"If you decide to enter North Korea against the advice of this Travel Warning, you should have no expectation of privacy". He even recalled the ambassador to South Korea for about three months after a statue representing the women was installed in front of the Japanese Consulate in Busan last December.

North Korea demanded on Friday the extradition of South Korea's spy chief, accusing him of being a mastermind of a plot to assassinate its leader, Kim Jong Un, with a biochemical weapon.

Mr Trump and Mr Moon appear at odds over how to deal with Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programmes, with the USA president favouring economic sanctions and military force if necessary. Moon advocates a less confrontational policy. There is a strong possibility that North Korea will conduct a new nuclear test in May, Executive Director of the Institute of International Relations at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Liu Ming said in an interview with TASS. It's a system created to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missiles of the sort that North Korea might use to deliver nuclear weapons on South Korea (and maybe Japan) if it ever managed to make its nuclear weapons small enough to fit on them. Moon will now have great difficulty in reversing that decision, and the North Koreans are predictably waxing hysterical about it.

The advisory comes two days after Pyongyang confirmed it has detained a fourth US citizen.

Moon Jae-in vowed to implement an engagement orientated system and will negotiate with its principal ally, the United States, as well as its top trading partner, China.

Xi also called for continued joint effort to defend hard-won achievements in terms of China-South Korea relations and to build mutual trust and properly settle differences based on mutual respect.

South Koreans are accustomed to living under the threat from the North, and opinions are divided on how to handle Pyongyang.